Fire swept through six shops at ZIMCO yard on Freedom Way in Lusaka destroying property worth several millions of Kwacha.
Shop owners woke up to a rude shock, when they found debris from the inferno which started around 01:00 hours.
The cause of the fire could not immediately be established.
Fire fighters from the Lusaka City Council (LCC) and the Zambia Air Force (ZAF) had a tough time in quenching the inferno, raising more concerns from on-lookers in the capacity by fire fighters to protect public property.
The LCC fire fighters were the first to arrive on the scene but struggled to gain entry to any of the shops as the premises had been locked up by the owners at the time they were knocking off.
The ill-equipped fire fighters could not cut the locks and resorted to banging on the grille doors in the hope of knocking them down as the raging fire moved on, clearly completely consuming wares in one shop before moving on to the next.
The squad was forced to squirt the water over the roof and the small openings. This led to the two LCC engines running out of water without registering any meaningful impact on the fire.
The two engines left the scene to fetch more water and it was not until close to an hour after they had been gone that a more technologically advanced fire engine from the Zambia Air Force (ZAF) arrived.
Though not helping to save any of the merchandise in the shops, the arrival of the squad from ZAF made a difference as the fire quickly seemed to have come under control.
Apart from two ladies that came to the scene, all the shop owners were not present as the blazing fire consumed their life-time savings.
The two arrived at different times and both openly wailed upon seeing what state their business were in. One of them was only relieved upon realising that her shop had not yet been touched by the fire. She quickly called on members of the public to while mobilizing those that she had come with to dash into the shop and salvage what they could.
Lusaka Mayor, Daniel Chisenga said the LCC fire brigade had problems accessing fire hydrants which were supposed to be found near buildings.
Mr Chisenga said the local authority had plans to purchase more fire engines.
A check found shop owners, most of who were dealing in automotive spare parts, milling through the remains of their stores.
Juldan Motors, which operates near the gutted building, hurriedly moved busses and passenger chairs away from the ravaging flames, while customers scampered for safety and helplessly watched the inferno take its toll on part of the building.
A bus which had been left right in front of the building was only a few minutes from catching fire before the driver, whose whereabouts had remained unknown for a good while, arrived and hurriedly drove it to safety.
An eye witness, Mike Lungu, who is a fuel attendant at Ravasia filling station, said he and his colleagues noticed the building on fire around 01:00 hours.
One of the affected business owners of Sangwani minimart, Evaristo Tonga was visibly shaken by the extent of damage caused to his shop.
“Everything is shattered. You can’t even pick anything from here, as you can see,” Mr Tonga said.
He said he had lost property and undisclosed cash which was left in the shop.
Kentam Investments proprietor, Kennedy Botha and Felix Chongo, another owner of one of the burnt shops, estimated a loss of over K150 million and K300 million, respectively.
The Mayor attributed the fire brigade’s failure to control fires to lack of fire engines.
He said LCC would soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding with a private firm, Firecom, which runs a fire fighting business in the mines, to help in operations.
“When developing structures, it is very important to provide the local authorities with building plans because failure to do so is costing the city so much money,” Mr Chisenga said in an interview.
